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Name: Isoroku Yamamoto
Age: 27
Hometown: Tokyo, Japan
School: N/A
Relationships: Married with three children
Ethnicity: Japanese
Birthday: August 3, 1914
After my country’s successful attack on Pearl Harbor, our armies continued to advance and spread our power around the word. We rapidly advanced and seized control of the Philippines Hong Kong, French Indonesia, Malaya, Burma, Thailand, much of China, the Dutch East Indies, Guam, Wake Island, the Solomon Islands, and many other islands in the Pacific (Danzer et al 579). After our attack on Pearl Harbor, my army's next goal was the Philippines and we used an attack similar to the one used at Pearl Harbor. On December 8, 1941 we attacked the Philippines, utilizing the element of surprise ("The Rising Sun..."). Just 30 days after the first invasion our forces had already caused American forces to retreat back to the upper Bataan. And by mid-march of 1942 American forces were ordered to retreat by President Roosevelt (Danzer et al 579).
In addition to the domination of the Philippines, the Foreign Quarter of Shanghai fell on December 8, 1941; on December 10 Guam fell, and was followed by Wake on December 23. Lastly Hong Kong fell on December 25th of that year. February 27, 1942 the Battle of the Java sea began and it finally removed Allied Naval power in Southeast Asia ("The Rising Sun..."). Next we set our sights on Tulagi in the Solomon Islands and Port Moresby in New Guinea. These two goals would be essential in our expansion because it would create a valuable defensive chain in the Pacific and allow other territories to be captured. Tulagi was taken over without opposition; however the Japanese army met resistance in Port Moresby. The Battle of the Coral Sea began on May 8, 1942 and was mostly a fight between carrier launched aircrafts (Phillips). Although the Japanese army was able to deliver the most damage, the Americans were able to fend us off and for the first time since the start of World War II Japanese advancement had been stopped. The Japanese advancement was completely halted at the battle of Midway ("The Rising Sun...").
Works Cited
Danzer, Gerald, et al. The Americans. Evanston, Illinois: McDougal Littell Inc., 2003.
Phillips, Charles, and Alan Axelrod. “World War II in the Pacific.” Encyclopedia of Wars, vol. 3. New York: Facts On File.,2005. Modern World History Online. Hunterdon Central Regional High School. 23 October 2007.
"The Rising Sun December 1941 - May 1942 ." World War II Database. 2007. 23 Oct 2007 <http://worldwar2database.com/html/rising.htm>.
Picture Citation
http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/resources/csi/Drea/images/IMG1A.GIF